Kevin Coe
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kcoe.bsky.social
Kevin Coe
@kcoe.bsky.social

Professor of Communication, University of Utah | Political communication, media, identity, democracy | Book: "The Ubiquitous Presidency" | Product of public schools

Communication & Media Studies 36%
Political science 31%

Reposted by Kevin Coe

On social media, Donald Trump riffs, cusses, dodges, weaves, raises money, and spreads lies. “He is the world’s most outspoken troll, and its most dangerous,” Jill Lepore writes.
Trump and the Presidency That Wouldn’t Shut Up
His posts and rants are omnipresent, ugly, and unhinged. Don’t look to history to make it make sense.
www.newyorker.com
My new op-ed with @lkfazio.bsky.social:

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
My quote to the AP: "What we’re seeing is an unprecedented attempt to silence disfavored speech by the government... Donald Trump is trying to dictate what Americans can say."
www.yahoo.com/news/article...
I think a lot about how narratives of patriotism in U.S. politics depend on an ahistoricity that suggests harsh critiques of the nations leaders, its values, and policies, and relentless loud demands from advocates and activists for change, are some newfangled product of a contemporary era.

My pleasure--thank you!

Last night's APSA @polcomm.bsky.social business meeting concluded my 3-year stint in the section leadership. I enjoyed the work (mostly!) and getting to know a lot of talented scholars. And, like many others, I've come to believe that the annual preconference is the best day on the Pol Com calendar.
📅 Only one week to go until APSA 2025!

We’ve prepared a clear and concise visual program for the #PolComm division.

👉 Download the PDF and highlight the sessions you don’t want to miss:

shorturl.at/LVuuw

Deeply grateful for this piece. Dave perfectly summed up everything I've been feeling.
Next week I'll begin my fifteenth year as a political communication professor.

I wrote up some thoughts on what it's like trying to teach this subject while everything falls apart.

open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
What it's like being a political communication professor right now
Misgivings, Grievances, and Thanks as I look ahead to my fifteenth year.
open.substack.com
Next week I'll begin my fifteenth year as a political communication professor.

I wrote up some thoughts on what it's like trying to teach this subject while everything falls apart.

open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
What it's like being a political communication professor right now
Misgivings, Grievances, and Thanks as I look ahead to my fifteenth year.
open.substack.com
📢 Publication Friday!

This week, we highlight “Teaching Political Communication: Five Lessons From the Field and Beyond” by @kcoe.bsky.social & Diana Zulli

politicalcommunication.org/article/coe-...
Coe & Zulli – Teaching Political Communication: Five Lessons From the Field and Beyond – PolComm
Teaching Political Communication: Five Lessons From the Field and Beyond[1]   Kevin Coe, University of Utah Diana Zulli, Purdue University   https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-103947-1, P...
politicalcommunication.org

Reposted by Kevin Coe

We're hosting NCA's Doctoral Honors Seminar at the University of Utah this June! I got to attend this annual event at CU Boulder in 2007 and it was one of the best experiences of my time in grad school. Application info here: www.natcom.org/calendar/nca...
NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar, University of Utah
www.natcom.org
📢 APSA POLCOMM SECTION: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS🗳️
The American Political Science Association Political Communication Section is now accepting nominations for leadership positions for the 2024-2025 term! 📅
politicalcommunication.org/wp-content/u...
politicalcommunication.org

Reposted by Kevin Coe

🧵1/ Once again, I am talking about identity in communication. In a new #openaccess piece, we argue that scholars cannot meaningfully understand political communication unless we center identity. Ignoring it means missing a huge piece of the puzzle. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
We are happy to share the newest issue of the Political Communication Report! 🎉

This issue brings together six contributions on teaching political communication and also features interviews with recent award winners. 🧵

Read the full issue here: politicalcommunication.org/issue/summer...
Summer 2025 – Issue 31 “Teaching Political Communication” – PolComm
politicalcommunication.org

In a new open-access article, we use dynamic systems theory to better understand incivility as a form of collective behavior in online communities. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
I write in @thenation.com that Paramount’s recent settlement with Trump is a symptom of deep structural rot in our hyper-capitalistic media system. I argue that we should be thinking now about the structural media reforms we need for the post-Trump era as we rebuild journalism from the ground up.
The Media’s Profits Trump Democracy, Once Again
Paramount’s settlement with Trump is a symptom of deep structural rot in our corporate media system.
www.thenation.com
Only one week left until the ICA! 🤩 We are pleased to present an overview of the Polcomm programme. Make a note of the sessions you cannot miss!
The worst happened. We were DOGE’d. Our NSF funding is gone.

So now there’s nothing stopping me from sharing Expert Voices Together, a crisis response system for US-based researchers and journalists facing harassment.

It's a true passion project. 🧵 1/

expertvoicestogether.org

Reposted by Kevin Coe

Levitsky, Way, and Ziblatt: "No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines"
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o... (gift link)

Key points:
1. We are now living under competitive authoritarianism.
2. We need ALL of civil society to resist the temptation of appeasement and defend democracy.
We are extremely pleased to announce the preliminary release of the combined pre-election and post-election dataset for the ANES 2024 Time Series Study!

The data and documentation can be downloaded from the ANES website at: electionstudies.org/data-center/...

Best,

The ANES Team
2024 Time Series Study - ANES | American National Election Studies
electionstudies.org

Reposted by Kevin Coe

💸 APSA Political Communication Section Travel Funding

Planning to attend the 2025 APSA conference or Political Communication Preconference in Vancouver?

We’ve got funding to help and applications are now open! 🧵👇

One of my favorite end-of-year rituals is cleaning out old hard-copy files. I just found a review I received in 2010:

"I try to be charitable in writing rejection letters... But in this instance, I can't help but state unequivocally that this paper lacks merit or prospect."

Nope, not equivocal!

Reposted by Kevin Coe

Update, 10:15 a.m. ET on April 24: The statement has now received 400 signatures and counting.

As a reminder, you can read the complete statement at aacu.org/constructive-engagement

Reposted by Kevin Coe

I think a lot abt how marginalized people are expected to be perfect just to be treated w/ basic dignity, just to access legal protection. But democracy can’t mean rights for the respectable few. It has to mean fair and just treatment even for those seen as least deserving. That’s the real test.

Reposted by Kevin Coe

Nothing says teaching critical thinking like state-level bans on what topics can be taught
New piece in The Nation arguing that we need public media more now than ever. We must defend what we have with an eye toward expanding and restructuring public media in the future.
We Must Save Public Media to Change It
We need public media more than ever—it’s too precious to let Trump defund it. But to live up to its democratic promise, we must support public media to serve our needs.
www.thenation.com
The call for papers for the APSA Political Communication Preconference in Vancouver is now open!

Together with @ashleymuddiman.bsky.social and @patyrossini.bsky.social, we're thrilled to invite your submissions.

📅: May 25th, 2025, 11.59pm PDT (GMT-7)

More information: u.osu.edu/apsa2025/
2025 Political Communication APSA Preconference
u.osu.edu
Here's a real "national emergency": College kids won't, and often can't, read a book from cover to cover. The rise of what one prof calls "functional illiteracy" in the iPhone Age is happening right when our imploding democracy needs critical thinkers

My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/stud...
Young people won’t, or can’t, read a book. Now democracy is dying. Coincidence? | Will Bunch
A viral conversation about the near-death of reading by U.S. college students in the iPhone era reveals a threat to democracy.
www.inquirer.com

Congrats, Eunji! So eager to read this.